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About Number Porting

There are many wireless carriers in the US. The traditional Big Four used to be Verizon/AT&T/T-Mobile/Sprint, but there are also plenty of mobile virtual network operators such as Cricket, H2O, Mint, FreedomPOP, Visible, Tello, TracFone, and RedPocket (MVNO). As the name suggests, number porting means switching from one carrier to another while keeping your original phone number.

The biggest convenience of number porting is that you do not need to notify your friends or your company about a new phone number. Only the carrier behind the scenes changes. Most people pick a carrier and then never bother switching, mainly because they are not very familiar with the porting process. In reality, porting a number is very easy. You can usually complete it by submitting an online request, and your old carrier generally will not make things difficult. As long as you follow the steps and provide a few basic pieces of information, the process is usually completed in about 3 days.

Moving your number away from your current carrier is called a port out; moving it into a new carrier is called a port in.

US Number Porting Rules

The first thing to know is:

  • Under US law, a carrier cannot refuse to let an existing customer transfer to another carrier, even if there is an outstanding balance on the account or an early termination penalty.

If your number transfer does not go through successfully, you can contact the carrier's customer service and it can usually be resolved. If not, you can file a complaint with the FCC:

When porting, you only need to provide your old carrier's information to the carrier you are porting in to. Usually you will need:

  • Phone Number: your phone number
  • Carrier: your current carrier; if it is a smaller carrier and not listed, select others
  • Account Number: for major carriers, you can usually find this by logging into your account or on your bill. If you use a smaller carrier or are a member on someone else's famaily plan, it is best to call customer service before porting and confirm it.
  • voice pin: usually a 4-digit number; if you have never set one up, call customer service and ask
  • zip: your billing zip or the zip code of the family plan account owner
  • Name: your own name; if you are on a family plan, it is recommended to call and confirm

The image below shows some of the information required to port into visible.

In fact, you do not need to worry too much that customer service will give you a hard time and refuse to provide the information when you call. If you mention that you want to leave, some reps may even try to keep you with a retention offer, such as lowering your bill or giving you extra credit.

Porting Bonuses

To attract customers, wireless carriers often run various promotions that give extra rewards to new customers who port in:

  • Sprint, $300 Master Gift Card: Last year there was a BYOD offer that gave one free year of Sprint service with only taxes and fees due. This year, in March-April, bringing your own device and porting in for three months could get you a $300 Mastercard gift card.
  • Visible, $100-$200：When the iPhone SE was released this year, buying the new SE and porting in for two months could earn a $200 prepaid gift card. Just porting in and staying for 2 months could also earn a $100 gift card. Visible also frequently has swap offers where you can trade in any old Android phone for a brand-new Visible Android phone, as long as it can power on. It seems the current port-in bonus has dropped to $50.
  • Cricket ultra-cheap iPhones：Recently, after porting in and staying for 1 month, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8+ have been very cheap. The 32GB iPhone 7 costs only $60, and the 128GB iPhone 8+ costs only $210. However, Cricket requires 6 months of use before unlocking. You can use an unlock adapter to get around this so the phone works with another carrier's SIM card with no difference in normal use.
  • Verizon, $300 gift card：There is currently also a BYOD port-in offer for a $300 Verizon gift card. One important point is that this gift card can only be used with Verizon, and you must keep service for more than 6 months; otherwise the gift card may be clawed back.
  • T-Mobile, similar to Verizon: It has now merged with Sprint, and there are similar deals available. Current T-Mobile/Sprint customers can also use T-Mobile Tuesday offers. Big-box retailers such as Sam's Club, Walmart, and Costco also frequently run promotions. Around Black Friday, you will often see deals where buying a new phone comes with a $300-$400 gift card. These offers generally require installment payments, but they are not contract phones and are usually unlockable after about two months of use.
  • AT&T, $250 Visa gift card：As the carrier with some of the broadest coverage in North America, AT&T often has strong port-in promotions. At the moment, porting in and staying for 45 days can earn you a $250 prepaid Visa gift card (AT&T BYOD).

As you can see, carriers often offer new customers rewards worth $100-$400+, or opportunities to buy phones at steep discounts. Competition for customers is fierce, and that is exactly what we like to see.

So how do you actually get these rewards? It is quite simple. There are two ways:

  • Port your existing number: Just meet the carrier's requirements. Since your number stays the same, you could potentially keep collecting port-in bonuses every month, every year, or every couple of years. Use one carrier, then move on to the next. The total rewards can really add up. And to anyone calling you, your number has not changed... so no one knows how much you have made. This method works best when the new carrier not only offers a bonus, but also has competitive ongoing pricing.
  • Get a new number just for porting: You do not have to use your personal phone number at all. You can first get a low-cost number through something like Google Voice or a cheap Sim card. Then you can port that number directly into a new carrier to earn the bonus. Of course, you can keep using that number to go after another round of bonuses, and if you no longer want it, just get another new number. This works especially well when the port-in bonus is high but the regular plan pricing is expensive, so you can grab the reward and leave.

An Example of Number Porting

Since most port-in promotions are fairly similar, we will use AT&T as an example to show how number porting works in the US and how to maximize an AT&T port-in deal. In this example, the number being ported out is a Google Voice number. The steps are as follows:

  • Get the number information from your original carrier
  • Go to the new carrier's port-in promotion page through a cashback portal if applicable (optional; see the tips section)
  • Select a plan
  • Enter the required porting information and pay (you may be able to trigger a credit card offer with the right card; see the tips section)
  • Wait for the port to complete
  • Complete any requirements needed for the reward (optional)

Get Information From Your Original Carrier

For Google Voice, a Locked Google Voice number cannot be ported out. You must first unlock it, and the unlock fee is $3.00. If you are using another carrier that does not require unlocking, you can skip this step.

After unlocking the virtual number, you need to set a PIN, since this information will be required later during porting. If you use a different carrier, you can call and ask for the relevant information.

Common information includes Phone Number, Carrier, Account Number, voice pin, zip, and name. These were explained in detail above, so we will not repeat them here.

Choose a Plan on the Official Website

Go to the promotion page and choose a postpaid plan.

  • First, you need to add a free SIM card to your cart (Add to cart). The SIM card will be shipped for free by AT&T.
  • Generally speaking, postpaid plans come with an activation fee in the first month, but in this case the first-month activation fee is waived.
  • The next step is to choose a postpaid plan. There are two types: unlimited data and shared data. Different plans come with different benefits, so choose based on your own needs. With this current AT&T deal, one person is allowed to open multiple lines, and multi-line plans are relatively cheaper. The current terms state that each person can receive 2 gift cards, so you may want to consider porting over 2 numbers.
  • Enter the account number and PIN for the number you want to port in to complete the transfer.
  • On the check out page, you can see the $250 gift card in the cart. Before completing checkout, you need to enter the information for the credit card you will use for payment. Since this is a postpaid plan, you must also enter your SSN. AT&T will pull your credit report and generate an HP (Hard Inquiry). Also make sure the Account number and PIN for the number being ported are correct; otherwise, the port-in cannot be completed successfully.

Activate the New Service

After you successfully submit the order, wait for the SIM card from AT&T, then activate it and register your AT&T account. Once you log in to your AT&T account homepage, you can view your plan and billing information. After registration, you can also sign up for AT&T's FAN Discount. The FAN discount is a special discount AT&T offers to active-duty or retired military members and their families, government employees, college faculty, staff, students, and others. Using colleges as an example,

With all these discounts stacked together, the savings are pretty solid. Even if you do not plan to keep their service long term, reducing your cost is still nice.

The $50.00 monthly plan can save $5.10 per month. Note that AARP members can also qualify for the FAN discount. Some cashback sites such as Swagbucks occasionally offer cashback for buying an AARP membership, which can help you save money or even come out ahead on the membership.

Receive the Reward

Once you are close to 45 days of service, contact customer service promptly to request the $250 gift card. After you receive the gift card, you can cancel the account, so in principle the AT&T port-in deal only requires about two months of service.

Tips

Use a Cashback Site to Enter the Promo Page

In general, besides the reward offered by the carrier for porting in your number, some cashback sites also offer an extra reward. The only thing you need to do is click through from the cashback site to the new carrier's page. If you plan to port your number, check whether any cashback site is offering a reward. If you do not care about the extra reward, you can skip this step and go directly to the official site. Common cashback sites include: Rakuten (formerly Ebates), TopCashback(TCB) , BeFrugal(BF) , Swagbucks（SB）and more.

Before using a cashback site, read the terms carefully. For example, Rakuten's Exclusions clearly state that the $250 gift card promotion is excluded. Here I recommend using TCB and BF. If you do not already have accounts with these cashback sites, feel free to use my referral links (Rakuten，TopCashback，BeFrugal，Swagbucks), and you can get a sign-up bonus.

For this step, simply go to the cashback site's homepage, search for AT&T, and click Get Cashback Now or Shop Now to enter the promo page through the cashback portal link.

Different cashback sites may offer different payouts. TCB often has limited-time Double cashback promotions, so you can choose the portal with the higher cashback rate. Currently, SB gives 3250SB ($32.50) for one AT&T line, BF gives $50.00, and TCB gives $100.00.

Canceling the account does not affect cashback tracking or payout. The screenshot below shows my cashback record on TCB for one AT&T port-in line.

Credit Card Rewards

In addition, credit cards from Chase, Bank of America (BoA), and others occasionally have AT&T offers. These offers often require making two purchases of more than $15 with AT&T to get $40/$35 or some other amount of cashback. One thing to note is that AT&T allows overpay, so you can prepay your bill to trigger the credit card cashback. This method only works for postpaid plans; prepaid plans do not trigger the offer.

Other Things to Keep in Mind

Phone Network Standard

Before porting your number, you must understand your phone's network standard. Common standards are as follows. Note that if you use another MVNO, you should go by the network used by that MVNO.

  • AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM networks
  • Verizon and Sprint use CDMA networks

If you want to bring your own phone, make sure to check whether your phone is compatible with the network. Carrier websites generally provide an IMEI check so users can verify compatibility. If you are porting in a new number, you usually also need to activate it once with a phone. If the network standard really does not match, just borrow a phone from someone else to complete activation.

Phone Plans

Next, you should understand what kind of phone plan you need. In the U.S., cell phone plans generally fall into two categories:

  • Prepaid: With a prepaid plan, you usually load money onto the SIM card in advance, and charges are deducted based on the selected plan. When the balance runs low, the account service is suspended. These plans usually do not require a credit check, but you generally need to use a fully paid-off, unlocked, no-contract phone. Visible and Cricket wireless are typical examples of prepaid plans.
  • Postpaid. Postpaid plans calculate charges based on actual usage during the month, and a bill is generally sent at the end of the month. Postpaid plans usually have a first-month activation fee and also require a credit check, which will show up on your credit report as an HP (hard pull). Sprint and AT&T port-in promotions fall into the postpaid category. Postpaid plans can be divided into individual plans and family plans. Individual plans are more expensive, while family plans are much cheaper. The members do not actually need to be family; friends and classmates can also form a group. One person can also open multiple lines to enjoy the group discount.

How to Get a Number at Low Cost

There are many ways to get a phone number for a port-in. eBay has plenty of listings selling phone numbers. If your old number is about to expire and you want to port it out, that works too. You can also just use a Google Voice number for a port-in. In addition, you can consider numbers from other carriers. For example, during Black Friday, Best Buy often has SIM cards for just a few dollars, so you can stock up on a few to keep on hand. US Mobile also offers free SIM cards; you can apply for one using an .edu email address. Its cheapest plan costs less than $5 per month, and after activation you can contact customer service to get the account number and PIN needed for the transfer.

Carrier restrictions

Sometimes carriers have special rules for port-in bonuses. The most common issue is that the new carrier is not considered separate from the original carrier. What does that mean? For example, Cricket does not accept AT&T numbers for port-in, because Cricket already uses AT&T’s network. In addition, some carriers do not allow landline numbers to be ported in, such as Cricket. Google Voice numbers fall into the landline category.

Before starting a port-in, it is best to read the relevant terms carefully to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

Conclusion

Overall, porting a number is not difficult. First, confirm the plan you want to port into: prepaid plans do not require a credit check, while postpaid plans will result in a hard pull (HP). Next, prepare a number that meets the port-in requirements, and make sure to read the official instructions carefully. Before porting, you will need the account number and PIN for the number being transferred; these can usually be obtained by contacting your current carrier’s customer service. Then, be sure to use the link provided by the cashback website to complete the port-in promotion, and make good use of carrier discounts and credit card offers (Chase, BoA, etc.). Finally, once you have met the port-in requirements and the required waiting period listed by the website has passed, contact customer service to request the gift card. After that, you can decide for yourself whether to keep or close the account.